Hi Kuroi,

Thanks for the reply. I hear you loud and clear about the expertise and associated value / cost of it but I'm in the situation where I can hardly afford even 1-2 hours @ €150 nevermind giving an open ended off you go at €150 an hour to them.

It's a VPS server - It's windows because when we were starting out on shared hosting we took a windows option primarily due to not having a clue about the other hosting platforms and being familiar with windows operationally. (Granted this may have been an ill thought out and uniformed decision) When we needed a more reliable performance we were steered towards a VPS server and selected windows again. I've realised since then that windows is very much in the minority as a hosting platform. I suppose we're typical of most zen cart users - small business that can't afford inhouse pc / web expertise and with current economics can't afford to outsource either !

I was under the impression that the hosting company would have been responsible for the mysql server but they are saying that they are not responsible for corruptions to databases caused by software / programs we have added onto the server - and by this they mean zencart as this is the only addition. In fact as far as they are concerned even turning on the mysql service through the control panel was an addition to the basic configuration which they don't provide free support for. They mentioned the possiibllity of "inoodb" being corrupted but could not say for sure until I let them loose at the €150 an hour. As far as I know the mysql server is on the same VPS - path to database was localhost if memory serves.

I went off and googled corrupted mysqls services etc but I think I am getting results and solutions off linux / unix servers as none of it seems to correspond with what we have on our server. Basically just posting here hoping someone has had experience with windows servers and mysql service errors and may be able to point me in the right direction. Thanks again for the reply.